


Symbiosis

by Rodyn



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Age Difference, Epilogue, F/F, Romance, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:24:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodyn/pseuds/Rodyn
Summary: The Empress and The Doctor have a strange relationship and yet, The Empress and the Doctor would never change it for anything else in the world.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is an epilogue to Emily's Low Chaos ending, so there will be some story spoilers here. 
> 
> I believe Hypatia has like a ten year age advantage over Emily and having an intimate relationship being implied here may be uncomfortable for some of you all. I respect that completely.

The two would meet on the mid-week of every month, on those exact same two days. 

Emily Kaldwin would be first notified of her arrival by letter flown in privately by an avian courier.  Sometimes the bottle would be one of the many wine glasses that she had taken from the Empress from previous visits, both a gesture of acknowledgement and an efficient method of recycling the damned things in and out of her workspace.  (It would also be dreadful if any of those ‘press sneak fucks’ as Emily eloquently put it caught wind of their meetings.)  Other times, the bottle would be a box instead and delivered privately by one of Emily’s own wayfarers she decided to erect in Karnaca. (A way to keep an ear on the underground to make sure Paolo was doing a good job in his rule.)  The box would contain a variety of sketches of her current projects and perhaps even a sweet or two.  In the end though, the same letter would appear in the same box or bottle.  Always hastily scratched together as if the writer was much too excited while she got the message out.

“I’ll arrive by dawn with Ms. Foster on her Skiff.”

“I’m looking forward to see you again, my lady.”

—From the desk of Dr. Alexandria Hypatia.

\--

Emily would arrive, always an hour ahead of schedule.  No one knew of this ‘whatever was it called.’ (Was it an affair?  Was her and Wyman close enough to even be considered a relationship?), not even Corvo who – now with this Mark – would always be present on her ‘private’ affairs.  This was the only one that she could manage to keep away from the old bore, bless his soul.

Meagan would see her first.  They rarely exchanged words outside of the occasional holiday greeting.  It was always a tip of the hat or a nod of the head.  Dr. Hypatia would rise from her sleep shortly after with the help of the Empress.  Oh the grin that the Empress would give the doctor would be enough to give her a heart attack, void forbid even making her sink back to her ‘phase.

She had to remember that they were on a schedule.  For Meagan to keep her end of the bargain the good doctor would have to arrive and depart on time.  So, she was very calculative as to what activities that she wanted to partake in with the Empress.

Sadly all of the time crunching and pre-planning were lost the moment Emily finished sneaking the doctor into her chambers.

\--

It was always in there. Always in her room.  Dr. Hypatia requested this as she didn’t want to be bothered with work unless Emily herself had brought it up.  Hypatia would sit at the end of the Empress’ bed and quietly gnaw on whatever food the castle’s chefs would bring for the day.  At Emily’s request, of course and planned way beforehand. The whole castle knew for these two days she would be ‘busy sorting out the remainder of the month’s paperwork.  An obvious lie to some of the staff that knew the girl since she was ten years old but, in the end the work would come out finished and delivered to the surrounding nations.

(Corvo suspected Void magic at work.  He was ‘sort’ of right.)

For the first few hours, they would talk.  They loved talking.  Emily loved listening to Alexandria’s – Alex’s – musings.  About her work, and how every day she would get closer and closer to solving the Bloodfly crisis.  Three months after Abele’s fall and the bugs would still prove to be a dreadful nuisance to Paolo’s rule but he and the good doctor were pushing them back – hiring those brave enough to destroy the multiple nests and abandoned cocoons and extracting the Amber for Hypatia’s research team to implement in their work.  They would talk about the Howler delinquents coming in and out of both Karnaca and Dunwall looking for honest work.  (Emily was certain this was Paolo’s work.)  Emily would talk of a Howler she met by the name of Sabine, working in the city here to get a better ear on Dunwall’s own gang problem.  Not so much honest work, but Sabine insisted she did something that wasn’t “fucking maid bullshit” that kept her and her sister in a decent enough flat and away from blight.  Sabine was, in a sense one of the first people Emily had managed to repay greatly after doping them up with sleeping darts. (To be fair, though, Sabine and her sister /did/ try to ambush her the moment she stepped into the city.  But hey; bygones and all of that.)

\--

Time would pass, and the night would arrive.

The two would drink some of Emily’s favorite wine and she would play songs on the harp.  Alex had requested a Piano for a couple of times she had visited but Emily’s stern rebuttal had quickly silenced the idea.

“The day I bring another Piano back into this room is the day I grow old and boring, Alex.”

Emily was talented on the strings.  Her heart was more into the guitar she acquired on the Dreadful Wale than the Harp these days but, occasionally she would light up the palace with open windows and loud, bombastic show-offery.  Not tonight, sadly as the music was only for her and her guest.  Soon one bottle of wine would pass into three and the room would be crackling with incoherent laughter and clumsy tripping over one another.  Alex would lie over the Empress’ lap, head first and laugh the intoxication away while Emily gave her one of the many stories of her growing up.  (The doctor’s favorite one being the fishing trip with her, Corvo and Mr. Samuel.  She was quite sure she was lying about Emily snagging a whale into one of her lines but, why not entertain a lie once in a while?)

\--

It would grow late, Emily and Dr. Hypatia would recess into the Empress ‘safe room’.  Or as the Empress put it, her ‘actual’ living quarters instead of that dreadful display room. 

The two were done with talking.  Where they went for the remainder of their night would be up to either of the two.  Some days, Emily would end out the night with the doctor sleeping on her couch while the former focused on comforting her.  There were the days with the endless fight of the beast within Alex would stress her greatly, and the alcohol swimming in her system would get the ‘real’ emotions out.

Emily would find her hands resting against the doctor’s shoulders, pressing the ball of her thumbs against the blades just enough to extract some of that stress out.  Other times, she would lie the doctor over the couch to focus strictly on her back.  Emily recalled her mother doing the very same for her father.  Careful hands across a weathered body, kneading away woes until Alex fell asleep.

Sometimes, the stress relief would manifest into intimacy.  The Empress locked in heated embraces between the doctor.  In the corner bed nestled in-between those protective walls, the two would find themselves sprawled upon one another.  Emily’s excited mewls muffled behind the sound-proof walls of the safe room, and the doctor’s relieved yelling suffocated by the cushions her face had sunk into.  (She could never be as unabashedly excited as her partner, for reasons she didn’t have the nerve to explain.)  They were in complete sync with one another, right until the end with Dr. Hypatia’ nestled into the Empress’ hold.

(Or, even sometimes the other way around with the unexplainable nail scars decorated across Emily’s back.)

\--

There were other times when the stress was unbearable, and the doctor would cry.  And the only thing Emily could do was console her.  Let it out as much as she could, never asking the reason ‘why’ she cried.  What was important was that she kept Dr. Hypatia comfort even through these trying nights. 

The two would never tell anyone what happened behind these walls.  It was not for anyone to know.  That’s how the doctor wanted it.

\--

At the end of the second day, as the moon rose the two would say their goodbyes in the same way. 

Emily would kiss the Doctor’s hand, and Alex would lock arms with her to hide her embarrassment from Meagan one last time for the month.

“Safe travels, Dr. Hypatia.”

“Thank you for having me again, my lady.  Next month, as expected?”

“Of course.  Perhaps I’ll even bring that Piano you’re craving.”

“Only if you tell me the secrets behind that ghastly mark on your hand, my lady.”

“Then we’re at an impasse, doctor.”

“That could be said for the entirety of our relationship.”  


The two signed off with a wave and words of good wishes until Emily couldn’t see the Skiff in the moonlight anymore.  In the end, she would always find herself musing on what they ‘were’ on the walk back to pick up the paperwork she has finished by a ‘private contractor’ and her mind would never find the answer.

That same contractor, in their ever so mysterious tone would say into the external void:

 “A joining not to love, nor a ‘fling’ to sedate some sort of latent build of lust. But, my dear lady Emily, a joining to exist between one another.  To acknowledge that existence, no matter what the circumstance.  I find that kind of ‘Symbiosis’ much more fascinating than mere ‘love’, because the desires to exist vary between one another.”

She never responded back to the contractor and yet, she’d have to agree. ‘Symbiosis’ was a better word to use.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I alluded to a lot of nifty things here. 
> 
> Sabine is actually a NPC seen in Missions 3-4 behind the station. I liked her story after reading the lore charts and I didn't kill her, so giving her a decent life is a personal goal here. I sort of want to write a story about her but I just don't have enough time to invest into something like that.
> 
> Thank you for reading and please, I'd like some good feedback.


End file.
